"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than
by the ones you did.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your
sails.Explore. Dream. Discover."

The remarkable Presbyterian preacher/novelist Frederick Buechner compared humanity to an
enormous spider web: "if you touch it anywhere, you set the whole thing
trembling....As we move around this world and as we act with kindness, perhaps, or with
indifference, or with hostility, toward the people we meet, we too are setting the great
spider web a-tremble. The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and
that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and
time my touch will be felt. Our lives are linked. No man is an island."

"Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not count the cost; to fight and not heed the
wounds;
to toil and not seek for rest;
to labor and not ask for reward, except to know
that I am doing your will."

"If there is to be a regeneration of the national character, it can come about only
by the regeneration of each of us as individuals. It is not a matter of committees,
machinery, and organization. It can only come about from subtle change in the heart of the
individual man and woman."

"You'll never make it to second base if you try to keep one foot on first. You'll
never achieve the dream in your heart unless you take the big leap and are willing to risk
everything--even failure--on the attempt. If it's what is right for you and you've
prepared yourself as best you can, the chances are excellent that you'll meet with
success."

Never buy a thing you do not want because it is cheap, it will be dear to you.

Take care of your cents. Dollars will take care of themselves.

Pride costs more than hunger, thirst or cold.

We never repent of eating too little.

Nothing is troublesome that one does willingly.

Take things always by the smooth handle.

Think so as to please, and so let others if you will have no disputes.

When angry, count to 10 before you speak, if very angry, count to 100.

More than a list of maxims, these canons show Jefferson's high regard for perseverance,
moderation, patience and respect for others. Cultivating these virtues, today, may be even
harder than in the time of this statesman and scholar, but they are still invaluable
guides to the good life.